Chapter 5 - Apartment 14C
Dean Keller's apartment was on the fourteenth floor of a glass tower overlooking the East River.
Stella had lived there for three years and never once thought of it as home.
At 2:17 a.m., she returned with Jonah, Wyatt, and two men she did not know.
The front door was open.
Jonah held Stella back with one arm.
"Stay behind me."
"I know the apartment."
"Which is exactly why you're staying behind me."
They entered.
The place had been destroyed.
Cabinet doors hung open. Couch cushions were slashed. Dean's desk drawers covered the floor. Even the framed photograph of Stella's mother had been pulled apart.
Stella stopped when she saw it.
The glass was cracked directly across her mother's smile.
"He did this," she whispered.
"Maybe," Jonah said. "Maybe someone did it to him."
Stella led them toward the bedroom.
"Dean kept a locked case behind the closet wall."
The hidden panel was open.
The case was gone.
Wyatt cursed.
Stella stared at the empty compartment.
"There was a blue book in there. Leather. No title. He took it out twice when he thought I was asleep."
Jonah crouched near the closet floor. "Anything else?"
"Cash. Passports. A watch he never wore."
"What kind of watch?"
"Old. Silver. Cracked face."
Jonah looked up sharply.
"Describe it."
Stella blinked. "Square face. Black leather strap. There was a scratch across the back. Like a letter G."
For the first time all night, Jonah lost control of his expression.
Wyatt went pale.
"Boss..."
Stella looked between them. "What?"
Jonah stood slowly.
"My brother wore that watch the night he died."
The room seemed to shrink.
Stella remembered Dean once holding that watch under the kitchen light. He had looked almost proud.
"I thought your brother died in a car accident," Wyatt said.
"So did I."
A floorboard creaked behind them.
One of Jonah's men spun toward the hall.
An elderly woman stood in the doorway clutching a robe around herself.
"Stella?"
Stella exhaled. "Mrs. Alvarez. You scared me."
The neighbor looked at the wrecked room and crossed herself.
"That man came back after you left."
Jonah stepped closer. "Dean?"
"No. The other one."
"What other one?"
Mrs. Alvarez looked frightened. "The policeman."
Stella's stomach dropped.
The old woman reached into her robe pocket and held out a small brass key.
"Dean gave me this last week. Said if anyone came asking questions, I should throw it away."
Jonah took it.
A metal tag hung from the ring.
317 - GRAND CENTRAL LOCKERS.
May you like
Mrs. Alvarez lowered her voice.
"He also said if Stella ever disappeared, it would mean the policeman had finally decided to clean up his mistake."
